1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an electron-emitting device, an electron source using the electron-emitting device, and a method of manufacturing an image display device. Furthermore, the present invention relates to an information display reproduction apparatus using the image display device.
2. Description of Related Art
There is a surface conduction electron-emitting device as one of electron-emitting devices. As shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-311593 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-306500, in a method of manufacturing the surface conduction electron-emitting device, an electron-emitting area is formed by executing a “forming step” for forming a gap in a part of an electroconductive film connecting a pair of electrodes to each other by applying Joule heat generated by passing an electric current through the electroconductive film, and by performing a processing called as an “activation step”.
The “activation step” can be performed by repeatingly appllying a pulse voltage to the electroconductive film to which the “forming step” has performed under an atmosphere including a gas containing carbon as in the case of the “forming step.” By the “activation step”, a carbon film containing carbon or carbon compounds derived from the gas containing carbon, which is existing in the atmosphere, is deposited on an electroconductive film, formed by the “forming step”, and is deposited in the gap or in the neighborhood of the gap. Thereby, a device current If and an emission current Ie are remarkably improved, and a better electron emission characteristic can be obtained. Incidentally, the device current If is a current flowing through the pair of electrodes when a voltage is applied to the pair of electrodes. Moreover, the emission current Ie is a current emitted from the electron-emitting device when a voltage is applied to the pair of electrodes.
In the Japanese Patent Applications described above, a voltage applying step such as the “activation step” in a manufacturing process of an electron-emitting device is performed by connecting a plurality of electron-emitting devices to a common wiring to apply a voltage to the plurality of electron-emitting devices through the wiring substantially at the same time. Consequently, it is taught that a voltage effectively applied to each electron-emitting device is shifted from a desired value owing to a voltage drop caused by wiring resistance. Then, the above described Japanese Patent Applications teach that a current If flowing through each electron-emitting device (or a current flowing through the wiring connected to each electron-emitting device) is measured to compensate the amount of the voltage drop by the wiring based on the measured value for applying a voltage to each electron-emitting device (or to the wiring connected to each electron-emitting device).
An electron source equipped with a plurality of electron-emitting devices manufactured through such processing is applied to image display devices such as a flat panel display (flat panel type image display device). In such an image display device, the uniformity of a displayed image depends on the electron emission characteristic of each electron-emitting device. Accordingly, in the method of manufacturing an electron-emitting device, a technique realizing a desired electron emission characteristic with high reproducibility is required. Then, moreover, in the method of manufacturing an electron source equipped with a plurality of electron-emitting devices arranged on a same substrate, a technique for decreasing the electron emission characteristic differences among the electron-emitting devices is required.